


The Way Things Are

by estelraca



Category: Kamen Rider Decade
Genre: M/M, Pre-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-24
Updated: 2019-12-24
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:47:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21895390
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/estelraca/pseuds/estelraca
Summary: In the aftermath of Fourteen's betrayal, Kaitou walks away from his life.  In retrospect it would have been much smarter to drive away, but by the time he realizes this he doesn't have access to his car.  Thankfully(?) he comes upon a car thief right about then, and his whole world changes.
Relationships: Kadoya Tsukasa/Kaitou Daiki
Comments: 5
Kudos: 33
Collections: Another Toku Holiday Special (2019)





	The Way Things Are

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MarineHaddock](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MarineHaddock/gifts).



> Your prompt for this was just unbelievably beautiful for a first meeting for these two, and I had a lot of fun with it. I hope you have a great holiday season!

_The Way Things Are_

Kaitou Daiki walks away from his life.

In retrospect it wasn't his smartest decision. Not the leaving—that would prove to have been one of the _best_ decisions he ever made in his life. The _walking_ part wasn't too smart, though. Fourteen's world has a great public transportation system, but as an on-the-lam member of the law enforcement system, it's probably not something that Kaitou can safely depend on while running away. If he wants to actually _go_ anywhere, he's going to need a car.

He's certain that his own car, if it's still where he left it, is a trap waiting to be sprung.

So he keeps walking, even after he realizes that it's stupid. What choice does he have? He can't go back. He can't return to the people who are torturing anyone with a dissident opinion, removing any will and individuality they might have; he can't return to his brother's friends, to the people who were in the _right_ , to the people he _hounded_ because he didn't realize what was happening.

Because he didn't look around and _think_ , and that's always going to be his undoing, apparently.

The nearest town to his is at least a half-day's walk. It's not nearly so far by car or by train, and Daiki finds himself hating his world with every step that he takes. Why should the sun be shining? Why should the pavement look pristine? Why should the people who pass in cars wave and act so _cheerful_ about seeing him?

Why is he smiling back, an automatic instinct that he refuses to quell because it's going to keep him _safe_?

He almost doesn't understand what he's seeing when he comes upon the unconscious figure of a civilian and the outlandishly dressed person who apparently assaulted him.

People don't _do_ that here. People don't just _attack_ each other. People don't... is the man in the pink-and-black leather jacket stealing a _car_?

"Hey!" Daiki bends down to check the pulse on the civilian, finding it steady and sure beneath his fingers. This stranger isn't a murderer, at least.

The man looks up, and Daiki doesn't think he's seen anyone with hair quite so ridiculous. Half of it seems to be intricate braids, while the other half is attempting to reach towards the sky. "Yeah?"

"What are you—" Daiki pauses, trying to figure out how to phrase what he needs to ask next. "Are you stealing a car?"

"Yeah." The man sounds mostly bored. "I got tired of walking."

"You can't do that." Pulling the unconscious man a little further from the pavement while still leaving him visible from the road, Daiki scrambles back towards the small blue car and the weird individual who is plainly attempting to figure out how to drive it. "You can't just take someone else's car."

"Sure I can. That's exactly what I'm doing now." The man figures out the buttons to raise and lower the window and spends a moment smiling, sending the window up and down like a child would.

"That's illegal." Kaitou has reached the car, but finds himself at a loss for what to do. "Not to mention immoral and, you know, _wrong_."

"Is it illegal here?" The man squints up at him, and Kaitou spends a startled moment trying not to notice that this guy is _gorgeous_. Why would someone who looks like _this_ have a hairstyle like _that_?

"Is stealing cars illegal here?" Kaitou repeats the question just to be sure he's heard it right, speaking slowly, as though to a child.

"Yes." The man also draws out his answer, smiling impishly as he does.

"Yes! Of course it is! Where _isn't_ it illegal?" Kaitou feels a faint lurch of hope that if he can just go far enough, he'll find a world beyond Fourteen's control. The hope sputters and dies as he contemplates that it's apparently a world where _stealing cars is fine_.

"It's not illegal where I'm from. It's s _tupid_ , depending on who you're trying to steal from, but that guy clearly wasn't a threat." The man unfolds himself from the car, rising up on legs that seems to just go on and on for days. Legs that are hugged by tight leather pants in the man's pink-and-black color scheme, and Kaitou tries hard not to look anywhere inappropriate.

"Just because someone isn't a threat doesn't mean that you get to just attack them and steal their car." Daiki doesn't speak slowly anymore, figuring it will only result in him being gently mocked again.

"Sure it does." The man settles his thumbs on the strap of a strange-looking belt with an enormous buckle. "Though it's nice to know that violence is going to be easy to use here. That's not true in a lot of places."

"That's not—I didn't say—" Daiki sputters out a handful of conflicting sentences, trying to decide whether he should be worried or even frightened of this strange man. "Where are _you_ from?"

"A different world. I'm scouting out this world to see what, if anything, we want to do with it." The man shrugs. "Came out here, though, which is a stupid amount of forest and not a lot of people. Figured a car would help me get to the people faster so that I could start getting impressions and making decisions."

"So... you stole the car." Kaitou blinks, trying to process the rest of the man's claim. "When you say _another world_ , do you mean..."

"Another world. Another dimension. Somewhere not like here." The man waves a hand, and a shimmering silver wall that's like nothing Kaitou has ever seen before erupts into being. It winks out just as quickly. "I need to figure out here, though. Who are you?"

"I'm Kaitou Daiki. I work for the police force on this world, and I'm going to have to ask you to stop stealing that car." The words roll off his tongue, and Kaitou feels the whole world take on a surreal tone.

"You're a cop?" The strange man's mouth turns down into a little disappointed moue. "That sucks. Pretty people aren't supposed to be cops."

"No? What are they supposed to be, then?" Kaitou figures he has nothing to lose by listening to what this man has to say. And it's not like Kaitou is _really_ a member of the police, not anymore.

The stranger steps forward, his hand reaching up to touch Daiki's face. He studies Daiki's eyes for long, long seconds and then grins. "Pretty people are supposed to be my friends. You know how to drive this?"

"Yes, I know how to drive a car." Daiki blinks at the non-sequitur.

"Good. There're too many buttons and I don't like it. You're driving." The man walks around the car to the passenger's door.

"I am not driving a stolen car for you!" Daiki stands rooted to the spot, his face seeming to burn where the man touched him.

"Why not? You're hot and tired and you don't want to be walking any more than I do. It's obvious." The man leans his frame against the side of the car, and Kaitou tries _very_ hard to suppress thoughts and assessments that would get him very fired if anyone knew about them.

Not that he can _get_ more fired.

Because he walked away from his life, and everything it held and everything he stood for.

Because his world is controlled by a monster, and that monster is cruel, and it wanted _Daiki_ to be a part of that cruelty.

This is cruel, too. This is petty and mean and a thousand other unpleasant things. But... there's clearly nothing personal about this stranger's cruelty. He needed a car. He saw a car. He took the car.

Kaitou finds himself stepping forward, opening the driver's side door, settling into the seat.

"There we go." The stranger smiles at him, leaning back and putting his hands behind his head as he studies Daiki. "Not so bad, huh? I'm Kadoya Tsukasa, by the way."

"Nice to meet you." Daiki finds the key and turns the car on, feeling the soft, quiet purr of an eco-friendly engine start up. "Where are we taking this stolen car?"

"Wherever the nearest city is, so I can get a sense of people and infrastructure and all that." Tsukasa waves a hand as though he's bored by the whole situation. "And please don't try to take me to some kind of prison or something like that. I'll just have to break out and kill a whole bunch of people in the process, and then everyone will have a much worse day."

"I won't." Kaitou pulls the little car out onto the road, and then adds a bit more truth to what he's already said. Why not? "I'm not really a police officer anymore."

"Oh?" Tsukasa's eyes run up and down his body. "Good. I'm glad."

"Why?" Kaitou doesn't think he's ever felt more off-balance in a conversation than he does now. His ability to predict this man is virtually non-existent.

Then again, apparently his ability to understand and predict his _own_ people has been woefully poor up until now, too.

"Pretty people shouldn't be cops, like I said." Tsukasa looks out toward the road. "Always trying to throw their weight around, putting people down, enforcing rules that half the people don't want... they're pathetic."

"You say this as someone who comes from a world where stealing cars isn't illegal."

"I say this as someone who has seen a _lot_ of worlds. Most of the time I'm better off if I run into someone who's not a cop first. Present company excluded so far, of course." Tsukasa flashes him a smile that seems somehow... predatory.

"I'm glad to hear that?" Kaitou doesn't know _what_ he feels right now. Attraction, certainly, and his first thought is to shove that away, but why should he? If Fourteen and his ilk lied about some things, why not others?

"Let's just see what your world has to offer, huh?" Tsukasa fiddles with his seat until he finds a way to lean the chair back.

"It... doesn't have much good to offer." Kaitou draws a slow, shuddering breath. "If you stay here, you're going to find you won't like it much. The leaders are all in thrall to this... entity called Fourteen. And Fourteen... he doesn't tolerate anyone not obeying orders. If he finds out someone's trying to do something they're not supposed to, he... he makes it so they _have_ to obey them. Takes away their personality, their free will... everything that makes them _them_."

Kaitou's voice is a rough whisper by the time he finishes speaking.

Tsukasa is watching him, expression curious, interested—a great cat watching something new that might be prey or might be dangerous. "Is that why you're on the side of the road in the middle of the forest?"

"Yes." Kaitou swallows. "My brother... Fourteen took my brother in. For sedition. Treason. I thought he was going to... I didn't know things were like they are. I _murdered_ my brother, and now his body is going to walk around as a puppet, used to capture the people he loves."

Tsukasa is quiet for a few minutes, his eyes sliding from Daiki to the road to the trees and back to Daiki. "When I'm done here, I'm going back to my world. You want to come with me?"

"To the world where car thieving is normal?"

Tsukasa grins. "At least if you're fast enough and tough enough to manage it."

Daiki laughs, the sound feeling like knives coming out of his throat, fire against his ears. "You know what? I think I'll do that. Didn't have many other plans for the day, anyway."

They pass the rest of the drive in silence, and when they park in town Kaitou has to shove Tsukasa's shoulder multiple times in order to wake him up so he can continue with his nefarious scheme.

Kaitou should have taken it as a warning of what's to come.

XXX

Tsukasa's world is exactly what he promised.

It's a den of mad scientists and cultists, monsters and murderers. Though there are some normal people there—or at least people who could _pass_ for normal, because it doesn't take an evil genius to make the miso soup for the mess hall every day—the vast majority of the individuals who have collected at DaiShocker's headquarters are... interesting.

Unique.

Terrifying.

Tsukasa is exactly what he said he was, though. He's a man who can walk between worlds, a child who was raised in this madhouse and told he will one day inherit not just the world but the multiverse.

For a while it's almost a little fun. For a while Daiki likes throwing himself into the politics and intrigues, trying to figure out who truly supports Tsukasa and who doesn't.

For a while it seems like a fun game, and when it doesn't, well...

Tsukasa is careless with his affections, picking people up and putting them aside with equal ease. Kaitou tells himself that over and over again. Tells himself not to get too close, not to get too involved, not to _care_ too much.

Caring is what gets people hurt, after all.

But even knowing that, even seeing, even _saying_ it out loud...

Tsukasa kisses him, and the world seems to explode into fire and stars and tingling desire.

Tsukasa pulls him into a bedroom, and Kaitou goes without a fight.

Tsukasa does _so many_ things to him, wonderful things, terribly illegal things, except _nothing_ is illegal in DaiShocker's world.

It almost convinces Daiki to stay. If he thought it would make a difference, if he thought it would _matter_...

"You know that they're going to kill you." He whispers the words into Tsukasa's ear, on a night when Tsukasa grabbed him and dragged him into bed without so much as a _please_. Not that Daiki _minded_ what happened, or would have turned him down, but still... it's a reminder that for Tsukasa the world revolves around _him_ , no matter what he might enjoy doing with other people.

Tsukasa turns and smiles at him, a lazy, easy grin. "I know some of them want to _try_. But they can't succeed, you know. I'm too strong."

"You're just one person. You haven't..." Daiki swallows, trying to find the words that will reach through Tsukasa's assured confidence and naive surety and make him _think_. "You have your sister, but you haven't been doing what some of the others have. You don't have a _faction_. You don't have people who are... are just _loyal_."

Sometimes Daiki is pretty certain Tsukasa doesn't even have his sister on his side, though he doubts Tsukasa would take well to insinuations of that nature.

"You worry too much." Tsukasa rolls over, throwing an arm across Daiki's back and using a shift in his weight to pin Daiki in place. "You see enemies everywhere just because that's what your world was like. Why would anyone want to get rid of me? I'm the reason this place even _exists_."

There are so many complicated answers to that. Tsukasa is the reason this place exists, yes, but the people that have gathered here around Tsukasa are not those who share power well. They are people who use, and take, and scheme, and teach a child who wanders into their midst that if he's strong enough to steal a car then by all means he should.

What does Daiki have to counter that?

Especially since Tsukasa _is_ ridiculously strong?

"No one's strong enough to stand against an entire world." The words come slow, Daiki feeling tired and lost. "Not alone."

"I am." Tsukasa leans forward, pressing his lips to Daiki's. "And right now I'm not alone."

Daiki smiles, pulling Tsukasa close, the first inklings of a plan starting to take shape in his mind.

XXX

He can't convince Tsukasa to come with him, or even to take the politics of his home seriously. He can't save Tsukasa when Tsukasa doesn't even realize there's danger to be saved from.

But Daiki can save himself, and if doing so protects Tsukasa, well...

He's just using the lessons that Tsukasa and Tsukasa's friends have taught him.

DienDriver is well guarded. It's their best creation, after all. It's the answer to the DecaDriver that is never far from Tsukasa's hand.

Daiki is ninety percent sure it was designed with the intent to kill Tsukasa, but he hasn't managed to convince anyone to say it out loud, and he doubts it would change anything even if they did.

It will give him what he needs. It will let him walk between worlds just as easily as Tsukasa can. It will give him an armored form that can fight just as well as Tsukasa's can.

It will let him be invisible, the shadow taking what he needs before moving on. Or... maybe even more than what he needs. Why should he stop there, after all? Why _shouldn't_ he take what he wants, if he's strong enough to do so?

Maybe all the lessons of this world aren't awful, after all.

Daiki had training in Fourteen's world. He can be soft and silent on his feet when he needs to be. He can be careful and clever, learning the guard shifts, learning the patterns, finding out the codes that he needs.

Nobody comes close to stopping him, and before he even really has time to be nervous Daiki is standing in front of the glass case that holds the DienDriver between test runs.

It looks ridiculous, a garish blue and black gun.

Daiki knows, down to his bones, exactly how deceiving looks can be.

The glass breaks with a satisfying crash, and Daiki carefully reaches through the jagged remains of the case to close his hand over DienDriver's handle. It fits him as thought it were made for his hand.

He exhales, his breath fogging some of the knife-sharp shards as he lifts the gun free and turns it in front of his eyes.

An alarm is sounding. He doesn't have much time.

He doesn't need much.

The note is already written. He pulls it from his pocket drops it atop the little pile of broken glass that is all he's leaving behind.

_Sometimes the greatest strength is knowing when to walk away. Catch me if you can, Tsukasa._

He doesn't know what to expect in the future. He _hopes_ that Tsukasa will put his verbal warnings together with his written one and realize that Daiki is just doing the smart thing—the _survivable_ thing. That Daiki has learned from his world and Tsukasa's world, and is not going to be anyone's plaything again.

He hopes Tsukasa will care enough to follow up on the letter. He hopes Tsukasa will care enough to chase him, and that when Tsukasa finally catches up to him...

What? What does he hope for from the mad would-be dictator whose only saving grace is that he's not intentionally, outright cruel?

Daiki laughs, the sound hollow and mirthless as the silver of interdimensional transport closes over him, taking him somewhere different. Somewhere safer.

Somewhere with a lot of trees and a small, winding road and a yellow sun high in the sky.

"Oh, _fuck_ me." Daiki stares around him, taking in the bucolic environment and instantly hating it. "I should've thought to steal the bike, too."

With a sigh he sets out walking. Going back for the bike right now would be foolhardy—everyone will be on high alert and furious. He'll go back for it later, if he feels like it will be worth it. In the meantime...

Well, it's not like this will be his _first_ time riding in a stolen car, after all.


End file.
